Mary King and Apache Sauce at Burghley Photo: Paul Higgs
British eventing star Mary King has announced on the website Nedz.co.uk that she has taken the decision to retire the 16 year old 4* horse Apache Sauce (Caffey), owned by Gillian Jonas. The white faced chestnut gelding by Endoli will now be competed in junior events by Mary’s daughter Emily
Apache Sauce is a horse that Mary credits with a lot of brains. In her book she describes how he unceremoniously dumped her at one event then managed to find his way back through the car park to his own truck and load himself up, much to amazement of her groom!
Mary explains that she made the decision after her ride at the Subaru Houghton International last weekend
“.... I ran Apache Sauce who is now 16 years old, and he did a good dressage and a lovely clear show jumping round, then we set off cross country and I have detected this year, as often is the case with older horses, that he is often a bit wary of drop fences and galloping downhill. He came to jump a log that dropped into water and he stopped! I thought 'oh Caffrey' and didn't have the heart to smack him, so I brought him round and he slowly jumped it and I finished the course steadily with him but it has now been decided with his owner that we are going to retire him from top level competition. We would be being greedy if we continued to run him and he is sound and clean limbed and it is important that he wants to do his job still. So Emily is going to try and play around at Junior level with him where there is less pressure."
For the full interview with Mary, visit http://www.nedz.co.uk/mary-finally-gets-to-compete-but-has-to-make-a-tough-decision-with-apache-sauce.html
